I was coming to the comment section to point out the multiple tongues- I think you’re spot on. The only other place we’ve seen three tongues is on the Collector’s chimerae (but please correct me if I’m wrong about that!)
We’ve been waiting for months for the she in “She’s Coming” (which woke Kendal up from his chill meditation). Those ghosts have some good foresight, it’s been a while since their warning and she’s only now making a move.
Well you know what the say: Out of the frying pan, into the flaming wreckage of a boat filled with void essence being simultaneously assailed by both a ferocious storm and flaming volcano rocks, and that’s about to consumed by gigantic sea monster that looks like what would happen if you made HP Lovecraft play Subnautica
I don’t think that grew like that naturally.
Doubt it’s the collector herself tho, for one because she was in Zuurith like 24 hours ago and how would she have even found them?? But also, the team is severely underleveled and overdamaged right now to take on the final boss. I can’t see that end well, neither on the Watsonian nor the Doylist level.
Might be a chimera she created, either a while ago to help capture some sea-spirit, or specifically to search for Kendal all over the ocean.
I, for one, don’t believe this is one of Collie’s chimeras. For one thing, it doesn’t have the signature flower-like mouth nor is its head trilaterally symmetric.
I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, but I reserve my skepticism for now.
I do not trust anything that has three tentacle’tongues and teeth. When I think about Lovecraft I think about Mind flayers (Illathids} and fishmen and giant squid men, very narrowed minded of me I know. Whatever happened to the sad eyed moptop from 2.3.21? Was that just Alinua’s eyes instead? The story moves forward!
I think thats a bad name for her. Why would she restrict her art to one style? The rat-dogs look like they do for a reason and this thing is looks like that for another reason. Who else could make something shivering with that much energy?
She isn’t an artist, she’s more of a researcher. She created an army of cloned chimerae to besiege Vash. She didn’t vary them or relish in creativity. She chose the most effective design and iterated on that. That’s how Kendal knew immediately that Jolon’s chimerae weren’t The Collector’s chimerae. She has a very distinctive touch and this isn’t it.
As for what could do that to a creature, I have no idea. But let’s not assume that Collie is the only thing capable of creating chimerae. We’re not even sure this IS a chimera. We have no evidence that this isn’t a naturally occurring specimen.
Oh noooo. That leviathan’s head design looks strikingly similar to the chimera beasts: split jaw, three tendrils for tongues, and a ruff of fur around the neck. I, for one, am convinced that either it’s the Collector’s beast, or it’s a beast she’s altered. Thought it might be earlier, too…
At least Alinua’s starting to heal Kendal, but he’s not up yet. Dainix’s core looks like… a brain? I’m not sure what Falst will try to do with it, but I hope he’s able to either help or contain the guy somehow.
Probably Kendal, considering on top of normal healings she spent an entire chapter healing him after the Tynan fight. In second is Falst due to his tendency to let himself get hurt.
I’d say herself. Falst gets injured more often, but he also very much refuses to get healed by her.
Alternatively Erin, but I think he heals himself quite often. He may get injured more than Alinua, but she only has to heal the really incapacitating ones. In contrast she always heals all of her own injuries.
Ten beautiful eyes appear, green outline of an unseen creature, and Alinua is without clothes in the final panel; yep, that’s a Life vision telling Ali to get the heck out of dodge. Maybe she realised her “RUN” warning back in 1-5-10 wasn’t cutting it.
Huh, I guess Dainix’s reassembly has to start from something; that could be his brain, or maybe his poncho? Still, I’m not sure what Falst can do, given Dainix’s frayed state and Void energy, beyond a “I know you’re in there somewhere fight”. Granted, the only experience they have of getting Dainix to stop in this form is an “I know you’re in there somewhere fight”.
Yeah, I’m with @Longshot97, @Bwitty03, and others. Three way split jaw, multiple prehensile tongues, empty green eyes; if it’s not a Collector chimera, it’s something just as bad. Also, @Rai626, there’s a good chance the Collector is here because of her use of the caves; if you can get past the monsters, elemental corruption, and terrain, those tunnels can be used to fast travel anywhere on the planet. Combined with her uncanny ability to track their movements, the confrontation between her and the gang could be fast approaching.
“oh god of all people why i had to get a self sacrificial type as a vessel?”
-life, probably
i personally don’t think its the collector, life would probably try to highlight the collector the same way she does with alinua in the vision if she was there, but this is 100% her doing tho
What do you mean with her uncanny ability to track their movements? So far she figured out, like, days after Vash’s disappearance from her lab that he went to Zuurith. Zuzu is an important god and city, and another very famous god just spectacularly died there in a burst of starfire, it’s no surprise she thought to check it out. Either Vash told her after torture, or she went out to gather intel and heard from literally anyone.
Zuzu then told her that Kendal traveled east, and she’s supposed to have taken from that “Ah, he’ll be at Rakhn in a day (even though no mortal soul has ever crossed an ocean that quickly)! Let’s park my serpent chimera right exactly there and wait for a convenient starfire burst to alert me to his presence.”? Kinda would just feel like an awful “diabolus ex machina”.
I think this comment came out more dismissive than I’d like…
Yeah, maybe her ability to track people isn’t so uncanny. She probably did hear about Vash in Zuurith from word of mouth after going to the surface to investigate where Vash went. However, slight correction, Big Z never said where Kendal was going, in fact he said very little. All he revealed was that Vash’s former vessel has a new soul; he never gave Kendal’s name away, whether he was in a group or not, nor where he was going.
She can tell his trajectory is eastwards, from Vash to Zuurith, but has no clue beyond that, or if he even changed course after visiting Zuurith. She can’t tell he’s going to Helm without proof or rumours, and considering the above is happening in the middle of a storm out at sea, she’s unlikely to get either.
As for the sea monster, I think you and others are right; even if it’s one of her chimeras, I don’t think she sent it here specifically against them. It could be a natural life-influenced creature, it could be someone else’s chimera, or maybe she did make it and forgot about it. If she’s been doing experiments for centuries she could have made hundreds of chimeras that she later abandoned.
Reminds me, for whatever reason, of that dais in 1-22-8 that had an object over it that was taken recently. I suspected the Collector of doing that, but it was never followed up on because of the Glort attack. How many dangerous, unfinished, Collector experiments are there in the world, waiting for someone to inadvertently disturb them?
Wait, Dainix has a core? Huh. For some reason I always though it would just be…fire.
Wonder what Falst is planning to do.
And yes, following the logic of everyone else here, based on the evidence provided up to this point there I am 99% sure this serpent thing is one of the Collector’s creatures.
Speculation on what the core is: I don’t think it’s his brain. looking at it in a scale sense, I’m fairly sure it’s too big, plus the fire is giving the illusion of the two hemispheres even though there’s more behind it. To me, it just looks like a big mishmash of something, but I’m not sure what. I don’t think red would go all out with the body horror and have just…a charred lump of meat?? (sorry) No clue on what it actually is, though, just that i’m pretty sure what it isn’t.
ooooooooh, those weren’t tentacles, they were fucked up chimera tongues.
Sooo, collector.
Crap.
And she couldn’t have shown up before the Paladin left? Nooo, that would have been helpful for our little guys.
…did she avoid doing that? Is the Paladin actually dangerous for her? Mh
he probably is in a way
the collector plans on taking life outside of the formation of the planet, considering how this not only means omnicide but also it probably envolves releasing the void dragon then the paladins knowing about her and her plan would probably be something bad for her, it might also drive michael to joining with the floof squad wich would certainly be a issue considering his and lucy’s strenght
The body of fire was torn apart,
A spray of sparks in the air.
There are larger parts on the burning deck,
And Falst is staring there.
He spots a mass amid the flames,
“That’s got to be his core!”
Alinua feels a serpent rising,
Three tongues under its jaw.
I’m really glad we have so many words for burning. Also, I think it would be really funny if the creature that emerges is a tiny little thing – we’ve only seen it from a forced perspective, and an unreliable vision.
Well, that mouth shape pretty much confirms it, then. An upside is that if the collector is making a dramatic entrance bia gigant chimeric sea monster, there is no way in HELL Vash’s souls aren’t freaking out and stumbling over themselves to wake Kendal. (Could you imagine if this all cuts to another soothing blue background dream, meanwhile everyone else is anywhere from “Trying not to die” to “Dying” in hopeless battle?)
Yes! Maybe it’s nice and just misunderstood only because of its scary looking appearance? Let’s be more tolerant and understanding, shall we?
Why do I sound sarcastic? I am NOT trying to be sarcastic I swear
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: hello new friend
Image source: core
tumblr text: hi
tumblr text: hi
bluesky text: everything is good and fine
Let’s hop it’s not sentient
Ooooo look an Eldrich abomination coming form the depths of the ocean to devour the ship how krakeny
Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?
Yep. No doubt, says I, sarcastically as I turn my seamoth around.
Hello there, new friend!
What a giant mouth you have…
Maybe it’s friendly?
It’s definitely inviting. Offering you to come right on in!
Huh. Monstrous creature…multiple tongues…multiple eyes ..related to Life…
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the Collector has arrived.
Come to think of it, I may actually be disappointed she didn’t show up in the middle of the fight with the Champion.
everything that lives is connected with life
I mean yeah but chimerae are especially because of the extra life magic mutating them and such
I was coming to the comment section to point out the multiple tongues- I think you’re spot on. The only other place we’ve seen three tongues is on the Collector’s chimerae (but please correct me if I’m wrong about that!)
The one in Echoes of Dr Jolon also had three tongues. May be best seen on 1.8.11 or 1.8.17
I couldn’t see the number of tongues in his other ones
nah the collector would have a bigger aura/presence in the vision… this is 100% one of her pets tho
We’ve been waiting for months for the she in “She’s Coming” (which woke Kendal up from his chill meditation). Those ghosts have some good foresight, it’s been a while since their warning and she’s only now making a move.
I had thought the “She” was pretty clearly referring to the Light Dragon. I hadn’t even considered the Collector
the three-jawed mouth is probably not a good sign
𝘖𝘩 𝘕𝘰!
Uhoh
Whoooaaaps. Thaaat’s going to be… bad. Yeah, bad, I think that’s the pertinent word!
Again I’m distracted by the art, though. Falst! Fire! Shiny things! Mooonsssteeeer!
Well you know what the say: Out of the frying pan, into the flaming wreckage of a boat filled with void essence being simultaneously assailed by both a ferocious storm and flaming volcano rocks, and that’s about to consumed by gigantic sea monster that looks like what would happen if you made HP Lovecraft play Subnautica
I use that saying all the time, I’m so glad someone else does too!
Ohhh my gosh
This is a really terrible situation but so pretty
I don’t think that grew like that naturally.
Doubt it’s the collector herself tho, for one because she was in Zuurith like 24 hours ago and how would she have even found them?? But also, the team is severely underleveled and overdamaged right now to take on the final boss. I can’t see that end well, neither on the Watsonian nor the Doylist level.
Might be a chimera she created, either a while ago to help capture some sea-spirit, or specifically to search for Kendal all over the ocean.
I, for one, don’t believe this is one of Collie’s chimeras. For one thing, it doesn’t have the signature flower-like mouth nor is its head trilaterally symmetric.
I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, but I reserve my skepticism for now.
I do not trust anything that has three tentacle’tongues and teeth. When I think about Lovecraft I think about Mind flayers (Illathids} and fishmen and giant squid men, very narrowed minded of me I know. Whatever happened to the sad eyed moptop from 2.3.21? Was that just Alinua’s eyes instead? The story moves forward!
I think thats a bad name for her. Why would she restrict her art to one style? The rat-dogs look like they do for a reason and this thing is looks like that for another reason. Who else could make something shivering with that much energy?
She isn’t an artist, she’s more of a researcher. She created an army of cloned chimerae to besiege Vash. She didn’t vary them or relish in creativity. She chose the most effective design and iterated on that. That’s how Kendal knew immediately that Jolon’s chimerae weren’t The Collector’s chimerae. She has a very distinctive touch and this isn’t it.
As for what could do that to a creature, I have no idea. But let’s not assume that Collie is the only thing capable of creating chimerae. We’re not even sure this IS a chimera. We have no evidence that this isn’t a naturally occurring specimen.
Its art because I love it and I refuse to entertain the possibility that i’m not getting more Collector activity
Okay. Sure, I guess.
it’s not the exact same shape and symmetry, but it does still have three jaws. Also Kendal’s mind-ghosts did say she was coming
I’m having a bad day but at least it ain’t as bad as theirs
Why does Danix’s core look like a brain?
Oh now that you mention it- oh goodness gracious
I thought it looked more like Dainix curled into the fetal position (the position i assume when I have to give up my foster animals-)
I think it’s too big to be a brain. A human brain, anyway-
Oh noooo. That leviathan’s head design looks strikingly similar to the chimera beasts: split jaw, three tendrils for tongues, and a ruff of fur around the neck. I, for one, am convinced that either it’s the Collector’s beast, or it’s a beast she’s altered. Thought it might be earlier, too…
At least Alinua’s starting to heal Kendal, but he’s not up yet. Dainix’s core looks like… a brain? I’m not sure what Falst will try to do with it, but I hope he’s able to either help or contain the guy somehow.
Oooo, pretty page.
Ah shitty that ain’t good
Aurora Question #28: Who do you believe Alinua has spent the second most time healing?
Probably Kendal, considering on top of normal healings she spent an entire chapter healing him after the Tynan fight. In second is Falst due to his tendency to let himself get hurt.
I’d say herself. Falst gets injured more often, but he also very much refuses to get healed by her.
Alternatively Erin, but I think he heals himself quite often. He may get injured more than Alinua, but she only has to heal the really incapacitating ones. In contrast she always heals all of her own injuries.
Uh oh. That ain’t good.
I sure agree. Right now I am just hoping that the green chimera distraction won’t affect Alinua healing Kendal.
they look friendly
Not a good time Life!
Ten beautiful eyes appear, green outline of an unseen creature, and Alinua is without clothes in the final panel; yep, that’s a Life vision telling Ali to get the heck out of dodge. Maybe she realised her “RUN” warning back in 1-5-10 wasn’t cutting it.
Huh, I guess Dainix’s reassembly has to start from something; that could be his brain, or maybe his poncho? Still, I’m not sure what Falst can do, given Dainix’s frayed state and Void energy, beyond a “I know you’re in there somewhere fight”. Granted, the only experience they have of getting Dainix to stop in this form is an “I know you’re in there somewhere fight”.
Yeah, I’m with @Longshot97, @Bwitty03, and others. Three way split jaw, multiple prehensile tongues, empty green eyes; if it’s not a Collector chimera, it’s something just as bad. Also, @Rai626, there’s a good chance the Collector is here because of her use of the caves; if you can get past the monsters, elemental corruption, and terrain, those tunnels can be used to fast travel anywhere on the planet. Combined with her uncanny ability to track their movements, the confrontation between her and the gang could be fast approaching.
“oh god of all people why i had to get a self sacrificial type as a vessel?”
-life, probably
i personally don’t think its the collector, life would probably try to highlight the collector the same way she does with alinua in the vision if she was there, but this is 100% her doing tho
What do you mean with her uncanny ability to track their movements? So far she figured out, like, days after Vash’s disappearance from her lab that he went to Zuurith. Zuzu is an important god and city, and another very famous god just spectacularly died there in a burst of starfire, it’s no surprise she thought to check it out. Either Vash told her after torture, or she went out to gather intel and heard from literally anyone.
Zuzu then told her that Kendal traveled east, and she’s supposed to have taken from that “Ah, he’ll be at Rakhn in a day (even though no mortal soul has ever crossed an ocean that quickly)! Let’s park my serpent chimera right exactly there and wait for a convenient starfire burst to alert me to his presence.”? Kinda would just feel like an awful “diabolus ex machina”.
I think this comment came out more dismissive than I’d like…
I think she had the beautiful specimen here already for another reason, and it just happened to sense Kendal
That’s what I’m assuming too.
No, it’s alright. You raise some good points.
Yeah, maybe her ability to track people isn’t so uncanny. She probably did hear about Vash in Zuurith from word of mouth after going to the surface to investigate where Vash went. However, slight correction, Big Z never said where Kendal was going, in fact he said very little. All he revealed was that Vash’s former vessel has a new soul; he never gave Kendal’s name away, whether he was in a group or not, nor where he was going.
She can tell his trajectory is eastwards, from Vash to Zuurith, but has no clue beyond that, or if he even changed course after visiting Zuurith. She can’t tell he’s going to Helm without proof or rumours, and considering the above is happening in the middle of a storm out at sea, she’s unlikely to get either.
As for the sea monster, I think you and others are right; even if it’s one of her chimeras, I don’t think she sent it here specifically against them. It could be a natural life-influenced creature, it could be someone else’s chimera, or maybe she did make it and forgot about it. If she’s been doing experiments for centuries she could have made hundreds of chimeras that she later abandoned.
Reminds me, for whatever reason, of that dais in 1-22-8 that had an object over it that was taken recently. I suspected the Collector of doing that, but it was never followed up on because of the Glort attack. How many dangerous, unfinished, Collector experiments are there in the world, waiting for someone to inadvertently disturb them?
Huh, you’re right, Zuurith never said that. Thanks for the correction!
Wait, Dainix has a core? Huh. For some reason I always though it would just be…fire.
Wonder what Falst is planning to do.
And yes, following the logic of everyone else here, based on the evidence provided up to this point there I am 99% sure this serpent thing is one of the Collector’s creatures.
detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region
are you sure whatever you are doing is worth it?
Speculation on what the core is: I don’t think it’s his brain. looking at it in a scale sense, I’m fairly sure it’s too big, plus the fire is giving the illusion of the two hemispheres even though there’s more behind it. To me, it just looks like a big mishmash of something, but I’m not sure what. I don’t think red would go all out with the body horror and have just…a charred lump of meat?? (sorry) No clue on what it actually is, though, just that i’m pretty sure what it isn’t.
I think it’s his heart. Simply because it looks a but like Howl’s heart from Howl’s Moving Castle, and Red is a big Ghibli fan.
TL;DR: Life: “Wait? Oh, you got something to “wait” for.”
Dainix has a core? Hi I’m really sorry but can someone explain? I think I missed something?
I’m pretty sure this is the first time it’s come up.
Falst mentioned at some point a little bit ago and somebody else mentioned it to him a while before that he’s only mostly fire
His body only gets mostly transmuted, he’s not actually all fire
Dw I’m lost too. It kinda just looks like dainix curled into the fetal position tbh-
YEAHHHHH OCEAN HORROR I LOVE THIS COMIC!!!
OK how are we thinking the steel exterior will hold up on a scale from frozen double decker (the cadbury’s chocolate bar) to UFOs (The sweet)
Uh…well…it’s Life-colored, so maybe She sent it to help? ^ ^”
Its coming to hurt and kill them
naaaah it’s just a lil’ guy
Wait, can Falst really do anything here? Cleansing the core seems like an Alinua job
Hm. I’m getting Howl’s Moving Castle (the movie, specifically).
…vibes, yes, me too!
Apparently, the what-ever-it-is was waiting for Falst to move away.
UH OH
ooooooooh, those weren’t tentacles, they were fucked up chimera tongues.
Sooo, collector.
Crap.
And she couldn’t have shown up before the Paladin left? Nooo, that would have been helpful for our little guys.
…did she avoid doing that? Is the Paladin actually dangerous for her? Mh
he probably is in a way
the collector plans on taking life outside of the formation of the planet, considering how this not only means omnicide but also it probably envolves releasing the void dragon then the paladins knowing about her and her plan would probably be something bad for her, it might also drive michael to joining with the floof squad wich would certainly be a issue considering his and lucy’s strenght
The body of fire was torn apart,
A spray of sparks in the air.
There are larger parts on the burning deck,
And Falst is staring there.
He spots a mass amid the flames,
“That’s got to be his core!”
Alinua feels a serpent rising,
Three tongues under its jaw.
I’m really glad we have so many words for burning. Also, I think it would be really funny if the creature that emerges is a tiny little thing – we’ve only seen it from a forced perspective, and an unreliable vision.
Well, that mouth shape pretty much confirms it, then. An upside is that if the collector is making a dramatic entrance bia gigant chimeric sea monster, there is no way in HELL Vash’s souls aren’t freaking out and stumbling over themselves to wake Kendal. (Could you imagine if this all cuts to another soothing blue background dream, meanwhile everyone else is anywhere from “Trying not to die” to “Dying” in hopeless battle?)
If not friend, why friend shape–oh, never mind.
I’m getting Bruce from Finding Nemo vibes from this
Abyssal Horror (In an Australian accent for some reason): Hello (Giant toothy grin)
Friendly giant squid thing
Yes! Maybe it’s nice and just misunderstood only because of its scary looking appearance? Let’s be more tolerant and understanding, shall we?
Why do I sound sarcastic? I am NOT trying to be sarcastic I swear
FREND ! ! !